Picture of author.

Jack Kent (1920–1985)

Author of There's No Such Thing as a Dragon

56+ Works 4,514 Members 78 Reviews 9 Favorited

About the Author

Jack Kent was born in 1920 in Burlington, Iowa. He left high school at the age of 15 and began a career as a freelance commercial artist. His first nationally recognized work was King Aroo whcih was syndicated and distributed from 1950-1965. The early comic strips were collected in a 192 page book, show more King Aroo, published in 1953. Jack Kent wrote and drew the 1968 syndicated Christmas cominstrip, Why Christmas Almost Wasn't. Jack Kent and his wife named their home on the banks of the San Antonio River King Aroo's Castle. He began writing and illustrating children's books in 1968. Jack Kent's book, Just Only John, received awards from the Chicago Graphics Associates and the Children's Book Clinic. The New York Times named his book Mr. Meebles outstanding picture book of the year for 1970. Some of Jack Kent's more famous works are Silly Goose, The Biggest Shadow in the Zoo and The Caterpillar and The Polliwog. He continued to write and illustrate children's books until his death in 1985 from leukemia. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Estate of Jack Kent

Series

Works by Jack Kent

There's No Such Thing as a Dragon (1975) 1,031 copies, 19 reviews
The Caterpillar and the Polliwog (1982) 717 copies, 11 reviews
The Fat Cat: A Danish Folktale (1971) 359 copies, 9 reviews
Socks for Supper (1978) 358 copies, 7 reviews
Jack Kent's Twelve Days of Christmas (1973) 220 copies, 1 review
The Biggest Shadow in the Zoo (1981) 165 copies, 2 reviews
Round Robin (1982) 136 copies, 2 reviews
Little Peep (1981) 115 copies, 3 reviews
Hop, Skip, and Jump Book (1974) 113 copies, 1 review
Joey Runs Away (1985) 101 copies, 3 reviews
Clotilda (1978) 99 copies, 1 review
Joey (1984) 99 copies, 1 review
The Wizard of Wallaby Wallow (1971) 97 copies, 2 reviews
Just Only John (1968) 88 copies, 1 review
The Grown-up Day (1970) 74 copies, 1 review
Jack Kent's Fables of Aesop (1972) 73 copies
The blah (1970) 69 copies, 3 reviews
Dooly and the Snortsnoot (1973) 60 copies, 1 review
More Fables of Aesop (1974) 52 copies
Piggy Bank Gonzales (1978) 37 copies
Silly Goose (1982) 33 copies
King Aroo, Vol. 1: 1950-1952 (2010) 31 copies, 3 reviews
The Christmas Pinata (1975) 26 copies
The Once-Upon-a-Time Dragon (1982) 23 copies, 2 reviews
The Egg Book (1975) 20 copies
Jim Jimmy James (1984) 14 copies, 1 review
Mr. Meebles (1970) 11 copies, 1 review
Floyd, the Tiniest Elephant (1979) 10 copies, 1 review
Knee-High Nina (1980) 7 copies
Fly away home (1969) 4 copies, 1 review
Le Petit Chaperon rouge (1991) 2 copies
The Funny Book (1977) 2 copies
The Scribble Monster (1981) 2 copies
Blister Book 1 copy
Sextet 1 copy
Flockstar - Gulls (2014) 1 copy

Associated Works

More Spaghetti, I Say! (1977) — Illustrator, some editions — 2,841 copies, 47 reviews
If You Grew Up with George Washington (1985) — Illustrator, some editions — 1,442 copies, 5 reviews
The Bremen-town Musicians (Easy-to-Read Folktales) (1974) — Illustrator — 1,075 copies, 5 reviews
Q is for Duck: an Alphabet Guessing Game (1980) — Illustrator — 572 copies, 14 reviews
I Was Walking Down The Road (1975) — Illustrator — 427 copies, 2 reviews
Why Can't I Fly? (1986) — Illustrator — 370 copies
The Emperor's New Clothes (1971) — Illustrator — 234 copies
The Brave Little Tailor (An Easy-to-read Folktale) (1977) — Illustrator, some editions — 196 copies
No One Noticed Ralph (Reading-on-My-Own Book) (1979) — Illustrator — 113 copies
The Simple Prince (1978) — Illustrator — 67 copies, 2 reviews
Ice Cream Soup (1990) — Original story — 62 copies, 1 review
Easy As Pie: A Guessing Game of Sayings (1985) — Illustrator — 45 copies
Big Bear, Spare That Tree (1980) — Illustrator — 42 copies
The Twiddle Twins' Haunted House (1996) — Illustrator — 38 copies
The Girl Who Wouldn't Get Married (1983) — Illustrator — 24 copies
Janie and the Giant (1978) — Illustrator — 22 copies
The magic carrot seeds (1976) — Illustrator — 22 copies
Laura's Story (1979) — Illustrator — 8 copies
Ralph rides away (A Reading on my own book) (1979) — Illustrator — 6 copies
Mad Magazine Super Special #44 Fall 1983 (1983) — Contributor — 2 copies

Tagged

ABC (42) alphabet (76) American history (62) animals (246) biography (61) butterflies (46) caterpillars (36) children (132) children's (236) children's book (41) Christmas (76) dragons (84) easy reader (65) fairy tales (65) family (36) fantasy (60) fiction (352) folktale (53) folktales (77) food (127) friendship (62) frogs (53) G (38) George Washington (71) history (120) humor (89) illustrated (51) imagination (39) Jack Kent (63) kids (42) Level G (49) monkeys (93) music (38) non-fiction (62) paperback (55) pets (57) picture book (430) presidents (61) rhyming (80) spaghetti (89)

Common Knowledge

Legal name
Kent, Jack
Other names
Kent, John Wellington
Birthdate
1920-03-10
Date of death
1985-10-18
Gender
male
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Burlington, Iowa, USA
Places of residence
San Antonio, Texas, USA
Occupations
author
children's book illustrator
cartoonist
Awards and honors
Chicago Graphics Award
Short biography
King Aroo daily comic strips (1950-1965) and numerous Children's books that he illustrated and/or wrote (1968-1985).

Members

Reviews

Read to confirm my thought that it's just a fun story, nothing to do with obesity. This is a fat cat because his torso becomes a big fat circle, and because 'fat' and 'cat' rhyme and help emergent readers. As soon as the woodcutter cuts the hole in the tummy and everyone leaves, he's a normal cat again. (And the woodcutter patches him up, so it's all HEA.)

Ridiculous on so many counts, both unbelievable and hilarious to most children. A child who takes it seriously needs to see a counselor* with his entire family* before they give him an eating disorder.

My library's copy loved to pieces but still circulating... in this very conservative community.
… (more)
 
Flagged
Cheryl_in_CC_NV | 8 other reviews | Oct 18, 2024 |
Jack Kent is seriously under-appreciated. This would only need a bit of refresh to be repackaged and appealing to today's readers. I get a very strong impression that [a:Bob Graham|200448|Bob Graham|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1272915049p2/200448.jpg], author of [b:April and Esme: Tooth Fairies|8036458|April and Esme Tooth Fairies|Bob Graham|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320552306s/8036458.jpg|12651838] and many other wonderful books, was influenced by this.
 
Flagged
Cheryl_in_CC_NV | Oct 18, 2024 |
 
Flagged
BooksInMirror | Feb 19, 2024 |
Another of my favorite childhood books that I still have. This is super cute and shows kids that when adults don't believe them that they should keep insisting until they listen.
 
Flagged
LynnMPK | 18 other reviews | Jul 3, 2023 |

Lists

Awards

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Statistics

Works
56
Also by
21
Members
4,514
Popularity
#5,560
Rating
4.2
Reviews
78
ISBNs
195
Languages
6
Favorited
9

Charts & Graphs